Speaker
Description
We discuss a novel mechanism for producing topologically stable monopoles (TSMs) from the quantum mechanical decay of metastable cosmic strings in the early universe. For a dimensionless string tension parameter $G\mu \approx 10^{-9} - 10^{-5}$, the monopoles are superheavy with masses of order $10^{15} - 10^{17}$ GeV. The stochastic gravitational wave emission arises from metastable strings with $G\mu\sim 10^{-9}-10^{-5}$ and should be accessible at HLVK and future detectors, including the Einstein Telescope and Cosmic Explorer. Monopoles with masses of order $10^8 - 10^{14}$ GeV arise from metastable strings for $G\mu$ values from $\sim 10^{-22}$ to $10^{-10}$. We discuss the parameter space for producing these monopoles at an observable level with detectors such as IceCube, KM3NeT, Pierre Auger, and ANITA. This mechanism yields TSMs that carry two units ($4\pi/e$) of Dirac magnetic charge and some screened color magnetic charge in an $SO(10)$ model.
